Spatial Brings Remote Employees Together

What’s Happening: Spatial looks to build out how brands and teams work collaboratively with a global workforce and has raised 14M to continue work on their collaborative AR tool that let’s remote employees work together through augmented workspaces. Think Slack or Google Hangouts, but one where you can visually see and work with each other through a shared virtual workspace.

Why It Matters: Over the last 5 years there has been a 44 percent growth increase in remote work. In order to adapt to this shift of flexible work becoming the new standard, tools will be necessary to bring employees across disciplines so they can collaborate effectively. Spatial looks to jump into that market to bring people together over work in a way that feels natural and supports collaboration.

Canon Still In The Augmented Reality Game

What’s Happening: Canon announced it’s AR successor with some really impressive visuals. Beyond hyper photorealism, Canon is touting many new features to make AR 3D models seamlessly integrate with real life objects.

Why it Matters: Oftentimes when we think of augmented reality, it’s for fun or marketing purposes. However, advancements in technology are providing businesses with the tools to create efficiencies across many development processes. If you’re looking to create a better workflow, it might be time to look into XR enterprise solutions for your business.

VR In The Cloud

What’s Happening: Amazon announces Wavelength, a new addition to Amazon Web Services (AWS) called Wavelength for 5G devices. Wavelength promises single digit millisecond latency for AR/VR applications that are latency-sensitive applications over 5G connections.

Why It Matters: Currently high-end virtual reality devices rely on expensive local computing. Wavelength aims to take that processing into the cloud to render and AR and VR content remotely. This drastically reduces the processing power required for applications that require low-latency and can let battery-powered devices take advantage without the need for said expensive local computing and enables these devices to access from any 5G location. Varjo, the maker of high-end VR enterprise headsets, believes this is a necessary step to scale VR usage.

To hear the purveyors and early adopters of augmented reality platforms tell it, the technology is emerging as the ultimate “measure twice, cut once” reference check for an increasing number of mission-critical aerospace and military systems.

Last fall, we reported on Lockheed Martin Corp.’s embrace of augmented reality technology as it builds NASA’s Orion spacecraft. The world’s largest defense contractor is working with large and small AR developers to speed the presentation of workflow data spanning assembly, test and maintenance.

Among the aerospace giant’s key AR suppliers are Microsoft, with its “mixed reality” HoloLens platform and Scope AR, a software vendor specializing in AR training tools. Those companies are at the leading edge of efforts to push augmented and mixed reality tools into the mainstream. In November, Scope AR announced support for Microsoft HoloLens 2 on its flagship AR platform called WorkLink.

That combination is aimed directly at large enterprises like Lockheed Martin that can afford to invest in AR tools for huge projects such as Orion while getting a return on investment in the form of manufacturing efficiencies. The company is using AR tools to assemble various Orion components, including the skeletal framework of the spacecraft’s titanium heat shield.

Among the goals in adopting AR technology for aerospace projects with the strictest of tolerances is what Scope AR’s Scott Montgomerie calls “real-time knowledge transfer.”

On the factory floor, the AR specialist is working with Lockheed Martin to develop training manuals that include animations for assembling spacecraft components. Training time for Orion technicians was reduced by 85 percent, according to Shelley Peterson, Lockheed Martin’s augmented technology project leader.

The resulting workflows have been used to reduce touch labor for Orion spacecraft components, including fasteners and accelerometers with narrow tolerances.

The company estimates that AR technology has reduced touch labor for drilling by 45 percent and 50 percent for torque applications. The task of tightening Orion’s fasteners was reduced from six weeks to two using AR.

Peterson said AR and “mixed reality” tools also have streamlined the translation and presentation of workflow data ranging from assembly, manufacturing, test and maintenance steps. AR software also can be used to add part identifiers or color coding of components. Assembly steps can then be animated.

In one example, Peterson said technicians don virtual reality goggles that display the precise spot where a spacecraft component should be attached. For volume parts like connectors, technicians previously had to manually measure before installing individual components.

Lockheed Martin, which also pioneered the use of disruptive technologies like quantum computing to help debug mission-critical code, is among a growing list of manufacturers embracing AR technologies. Others include Boeing, Siemens and Toyota.

Indeed, market watchers say manufacturers are embracing augmented reality for a range of applications. In a recent AR adoption survey, business consultant PwC reported that product design and development is the most popular AR application, followed closely by safety and skills training along with maintenance and equipment operation.

“What we’re seeing, then, is [virtual reality and] AR as an advanced manufacturing technology tool—just like robotics, 3D printing and the Internet of Things,” the PwC survey concludes.

The bottom line for aerospace companies applying AR, says Lockheed Martin’s Peterson, is a 50-percent reduction in the time needed to complete manufacturing tasks. “Augmented reality is allowing us to complete space manufacturing activities in half the time,” she asserts. “It’s becoming a reality today.”

Read the full original article here. 

According to Deloitte Consulting Managing Director Allan Cook, “Every ten or 15 years, there’s an impactful shift in the way people use and interact with technology and data… Mixed reality is going to be the fourth shift [after the PC, the internet, and mobile], and it will be as big as each one of those earlier shifts.”

On the surface, that statement may seem like a stretch. But the business impact of these technologies, which are well documented across numerous industries and enterprise use cases, support such a bold claim.

For instance, using VR for employee training improves pass rates and significantly reduces training time compared to traditional classroom lecture models. Likewise, when directions and data are provided in AR across field guidance and maintenance scenarios, human error can be eliminated entirely.

These impressive results have led many enterprises to test the waters, yet few have fully taken the plunge. A recent Harvard Business Review Analytic Services study found that 87% of large companies are currently exploring, piloting, or deploying mixed reality, but the vast majority are still in the exploratory or proof-of-concept stages.

Enterprise XR grows up

XR has proven to be a paradigm shift for enterprise in terms of boosting productivity, cost-savings, and learning and development, particularly in relation to highly skilled and specialized areas ranging from surgery to spacecraft engineering. Yet where so far we have seen pioneering companies work largely on an experimental trial-and-error basis, this next decade will see research catching up to meaningfully support this deployment on the ground.

Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, enterprise stakeholders will increasingly have the information and expert guidance at their disposal to tailor and customize solutions optimized for their specific industry, goals, and needs.

As more studies are conducted, and more use cases are shared among enterprise stakeholders across an expanding ecosystem of different industries, we will move on from the heady days of experimental exploration and marveling at the power of immersive technologies towards more targeted, considered, evidence-based and industry-specific approaches.

In other words, enterprise XR is about to enter its grown-up phase.  AREA Members Taqtile, NVIDIA and PTC are mentioned in the report.

“It’s a good time to be a software engineer. And it’s an even better time to be a software engineer who can build virtual or augmented reality.”

In the past few years, major tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Apple have been investing in virtual reality (VR) and its sibling technology, augmented reality (AR). Google just released a new “Live View” option in its popular Maps app that uses AR tech to superimpose information onto your field of vision as seen through a smartphone camera. We’ve seen similar examples of simple AR use cases, like the Ikea Place app, which works with your smartphone camera so you can see what certain pieces of furniture might look like in your house. Google is also continuing to improve its ARCore platform so that almost any phone can do things like measure depth.

Better hardware will undoubtedly unlock a lot of transformative potential for virtual reality — but even more so with augmented reality. Rumors suggest that Apple will release its first AR headset in 2023. Facebook, which sells its own line of Oculus virtual reality headset products, is also betting on augmented reality. Mark Zuckerberg has said he thinks there will be an AR “breakthrough” in the next decade on the technology, and Facebook is investing heavily in the field to be the company to do that. And Microsoft’s new HoloLens 2 is being used for industrial applications like training Airbus cabin crews in virtual airplanes as well as, more controversially, military applications, including helping US soldiers prepare for combat.

The rise of AR

When it comes to the potential of virtual reality technology versus augmented reality, it’s increasingly obvious that AR is where there’s broader popular appeal. While the reach of VR is limited to gamers who wear headsets, major tech companies see VR as a gateway to more wide-reaching possibilities of AR technology. The idea is that AR can reach widespread adoption in our everyday lives, as it does with the new Google Maps feature.

As it stands now, popular AR is app-centric — think Pokemon Go or the Ikea app that lets you envision new furniture in your living room. Both are popular apps, but they’re experiences that you must consciously log into and experience through a smartphone screen. A true AR revolution would be one where the technology seamlessly integrates into our lives without any effort. But the hardware isn’t quite there yet. The gadgets that exist now, like Magic Leap or HoloLens, may be getting closer to the dream of effortless AR, but so far they’ve been proven imperfect for the average human.

It should be noted that anticipation for AR’s big breakout moment has been building for the better part of a decade. Google tried to make AR for everyone — or at least those who could afford a $1,000 gadget — nearly six years ago with Glass, a wearable device that put a small display in front of the user’s eye. The product never reached widespread adoption, though the headset has seen some success in enterprise applications.

Many think Google Glass was ahead of its time, although the technology wasn’t advanced enough yet to justify wearing a Matrix-looking set of glasses on your head all day. With its focus on design and usability, Apple could revolutionize the AR headset space if it indeed builds a product. Others like Microsoft and Facebook are racing to do the same.

Facebook currently has more than 3,000 jobs on its career page with the term “AR/VR.” Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google have a total of about 1,000, depending on what variations of AR/VR keywords you use. A Facebook spokesperson said it currently employs “thousands” of people who work on AR/VR and plans to move its AR/VR teams to a new campus that will seat approximately 4,000 employees

“Demand is outstripping supply,” Hired CEO Mehul Patel told Recode.

There’s been a 1,400 percent growth in interview demand for AR/VR engineers in the past year, according to Hired. The company conducted a study that analyzed thousands of listings and companies in its annual state of software engineers report.

The average salaries for these positions in major US tech hubs range from $135,000 to $150,000.

While the growth for AR/VR jobs may seem extreme, Hired said it mirrors the 517 percent annual growth in demand for blockchain engineers in 2018. Last year, however, the demand for blockchain engineers had slowed to 9 percent.

But while the blockchain craze may have slowed down, the number of AR/VR projects is only expected to increase in the years to come. In terms of the promise of big growth, software engineers tend to agree. Some 74 percent of those surveyed in Hired’s report said they think we’ll see the full impact of AR/VR within the next 5 years.

Meanwhile, plenty of other data points show how the technology industry is betting — and spending big — on AR and VR.

Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from AFWERX to build AR tools to improve training for airmen. After conducting research on the available AR and MR glasses on the market today, ThirdEye’s track record of execution and success in military environments was a key reason its X2 MR Glasses were chosen for research and development purposes, along with a larger deployment into the Air Force and U.S. Department of Defense. The X2 MR Glasses align with the military’s needs, from its industrial capabilities, platform built for working applications, and ability to connect with subject matter experts in harsh environments.

The X2 MR Glasses fit a wide field of view with powerful sensors, providing advanced MR features that are not available on a monocular device, all while remaining entirely hands-free – important for being out in the field where wires can be a potential hazard. The X2 MR Glasses also run on the latest Android operating system (OS) allowing software to be easily ported onto the glasses.

Read the full story online

Uses for 5G in the enterprise market are also intertwined with opportunities in XR. Deutsche Telekom has confirmed collaborations with Qualcomm, 6D.ai and Nreal to support AR FieldAdvisor services, a solution for remote support for field engineers. BT performed a live demonstration of its 5G network in Belfast, which will enable a smart port. Working with Ubimax and VRtuoso, the carrier showed how augmented reality will support maintenance workers. And in the U.S., Verizon recently deployed its 5G Ultra Wideband service at Newport News Shipbuilding, Virginia. One of the stated benefits of the deal is easy wireless access to augmented and virtual reality technologies for engineers, allowing them to carry out activities from architectural design to employee training.